Brighton Tech Entrepreneurship Resilience

We are reaching out to alumni to hear how they have dealt with challenges and built resilience – and have asked them to share their ideas on how students and graduates move forward positively.
Here alumnus of 2015 (PGCE Further Education and Training) and entrepreneur and Founder of Vixen Digital Ltd. Sean Carroll tells us how he turned a tricky situation around and made the most of it:

In 2017 I started the Brighton based digital marketing agency Vixen Digital. Within the first year of setting up the business I lost a large client to a competitor. Not only did it hit us hard financially but it left us with unfilled time in the calendar. Initially I felt defeated and it even made me question whether or not I had what it takes to build a successful business. However, after losing that client I started to find myself having time to actually work on growing the business. I was able to put my efforts into tasks such as redesigning our website, writing articles, developing case studies, and networking. I realised that the time that was previously taken up by that client wasn’t time lost, it was time gained.

I continued to make sure that I used my business time wisely. I started a spreadsheet system to organise our business tasks and networking projects and linked this up with my calendar. We still use this in our business today. When I look back on this time, I realise that I actually learned so much from losing that client. It made me evaluate how I managed my time and it took me on a crash-course in business development. It also wasn’t long before I started to secure new clients as a result of all the effort I had been putting in. To top it off, about a year later, the client that I had originally lost came back to us.

In relation to the current crisis we all find ourselves in, it may seem like a daunting and uncertain time, particularly if you’re just starting your career, but there will be opportunities that come out of this. My advice would be to take ownership over the things you can control, even if you think it’s something insignificant. Sooner or later all these things build up to have a significant effect, which puts you in the best position possible to take advantage of any opportunity that does arise. Use this time to invest in yourself.